How Social Factors Impact Our Dogs’ Health
The social environment is one of the most important factors contributing to both human and animal health, as it can increase or decrease our risk of injury, disease, or death. In humans, two elements of the social environment are particularly important. The first is socioeconomic status, which allows access to better resources and a less stressful environment. The second is social isolation. These factors play a different role in health outcomes depending on a person’s age.
According to the authors of this paper, it’s difficult to study the social determinants of health throughout the human lifespan, which is longer than many other mammals. Instead, looking at companion dogs can be a useful source of information, as they live shorter lives and are similar to humans in some aspects of health. In this way, understanding the social factors underlying dog health can improve the lives of dogs while also suggesting ways to improve human welfare.
This study focuses on which components of the social environment are associated with dog health and how their effects vary with age. The authors analyzed data from the Dog Aging Project, an ongoing dog health study using questionnaires completed by dog guardians in the United States. In total, they looked at data from 21,410 dogs ranging in age from 2 to 25.5 years and evenly divided by sex.
The researchers examined stability, income, presence of children, presence of other animals, and guardian’s age as five key social variables. They used several models to determine how these variables affect overall health, diagnosed diseases, and mobility (which is considered an indicator of frailty when it’s low).
The results showed that older and heavier dogs had worse health, according to their guardians. When age and weight were controlled for, all five social variables showed an effect on overall health. Dogs were judged to be in better health when their guardians had higher incomes, when they had other animals in the home, when they had stable living conditions, or when their guardians were older. However, dogs living with more children tended to be less healthy than dogs living with fewer children.
For diagnosed diseases, the results were similar except for the presence of children and income. As the number of children in the home increased, fewer diseases were reported. As income increased, more diseases were reported. The authors hypothesized that, with a higher income, it’s easier to take your dog to the vet and pay for additional diagnostic tests when necessary. Thus, the increased number of diseases may simply be due to having access to more resources.
Mobility tended to be higher when there were fewer children in the household, when a dog’s guardian was older, and when the household was more stable.
The study also showed that the five social factors had different effects depending on a dog’s age. Younger dogs benefited more from a stable home and an older guardian, while older dogs benefited more from time spent with other animals and experienced poorer health from time spent with children compared to younger dogs. Notably, the presence of other dogs in the household was associated with increased mobility for younger dogs and decreased mobility in older dogs.
The authors concluded that their study shouldn’t be used to influence major medical or policy decisions. Indeed, the study had several limitations, including the fact that it relied on guardian self-reports and that it couldn’t control for certain factors such as breed. They also weren’t able to confirm the “directionality” of some of the results (for example, it’s unclear whether less mobility causes dogs to be unhealthy or, instead, whether guardians with unhealthy dogs restrict their mobility for safety reasons).
While additional studies would be needed to verify these results, they suggest that the social environment is as important for dog health as it is for human health. Companion animal advocates can use this information to educate guardians about ways to support their animals’ health. It’s also important to find ways of supporting guardians who may struggle to provide their animals with important social and environmental factors.
https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoad011